little four eyes

Ficklets is running a holiday photo contest: “Show us your Twinkle Eyes” – with a great prize pack: 5 Ficklet charms, eyeglass case, microfiber cloth, Amazon gift card, and more.  Check out the link above for more information on how to submit your child’s photo to enter.  Pictures must be entered by December 5, with voting running from December 6 – 13.  You can read our review of Ficklets here.   (Ficklets have small pieces, so I would not recommend them for children under 3).

I mentioned a while back about the Prevent Blindness America “Most Beautiful Eyes” contest. The contest is in full swing now, and voting will continue until the end of the month.

The winner of the contest (chosen from a group of top vote-getters) will be the face of the Star Pupils program – a program designed to educate parents about the importance of vision health for their children.

I would LOVE to have a child in glasses represent that program.  One of the concerns I hear so often from parents who learn their child needs glasses, is that their child’s eyes will be obscured, that others won’t see their child’s beautiful eyes.  We know that’s not true – that our children’s eyes shine through their glasses.  What a great way to show that, and to alleviate some of those fears: to have a child in glasses or a child with vision issues as the face of Star Pupils.

As voting is winding down, we don’t have a lot of time, but I know this community reaches a lot of people.  Voting is easy, you don’t need register or log in anywhere, and you can vote for multiple entries (but only once a day for the same entry).  Please join me in voting for our Little Four Eyes children!

I know of 7 entries from the Little Four Eyes community – if there are any others, please let me know (email me the link: ann @ shinypebble.com).  Click on the photo to get to the voting page.  Remember, you can vote for all of them, and you can vote everyday!  Please feel free to share with others, too!

Stella's Smiling Eyes - Stella wears glasses and does vision therapy for strabismus and amblyopia

Beautiful Eyes - Elly wears glasses for exotropia and amblyopia

Zoe's Eyes - she wears glasses for strabismus and farsightedness

Austin (had a congenital cataract in his right eye and has been patching)

Cutie Pie - she wears glasses for amblyopia

Smiling Eyes (after his surgery for infantile esotropia)

Eye scream for ice cream - Caitlyn wears glasses for vision correction and strabismus

Two quick things to share with you all.

First, Amomofelly sent me three more coloring pages!  They’re very sweet.  I’ve put them up on the Gear page, check them out.  As I mentioned in my previous post, I’d love to have some of these pages after they’ve been colored.  Send photos or scans to me (ann @ shinypebble . com) to help celebrate our 3rd birthday.

Second, the Children’s Eye Foundation just announced the start of their third annual “I Care for Eye Care” photo contest.  The theme this year is “visions of home.”  The 12 photos with the most votes receive a digital camera, but more exciting for me is that photos are also chosen to be published in their 2012 calendar.  I feel strongly that this calendar should include pictures of kids in glasses.  And I also strongly believe that we have a lot of beautiful kids here. The last two years, we’ve had a lot of photos end up in the calendars.  If you do submit a photo, let me know, and once voting starts, I’ll post links to our submissions, so we can support each other.  Full rules for the contest are here.

It is time again for the Children’s Eye Foundation’s “I Care for Eyecare” photo contest.   Children’s Eye Foundation is the foundation of the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus, their aim is to ensure that all children receive proper eye care, and to encourage physicians to enter the field of pediatric ophthalmology.  Each year, they run a contest to get submissions for a calendar that they sell as a fundraiser.  Last year was the first year they asked for photos, and anyone who was reading at that time probably remembers that we tried to get as many of our little four eyes into the contest, and into the calendar (you can see the submissions from our readers here – three of those submissions ended up in the 2010 calendar).

This year’s theme is “love at first sight,” which they say could include images that “portray the love a between a baby and parent or family or the love found via a child’s first vision or life experience.”  That’s a pretty open category, and I would really encourage all of you to consider submitting a picture of your child.  I know from the photo gallery (which I desperately need to update) and from the facebook group, that we have some incredibly photogenic children and talented photographers, and I firmly believe that the calendar from the Children’s Eye Foundation should have many pictures of beautiful children who have directly benefited from great eye care.   The top 12 vote-getters will win a digital camera, and a panel of judges will choose 12 photos from the submissions to include in the 2011 calendar.

Like last year, let me know either in the comments or in an email (ann@shinypebble.com) if you’ve submitted a photo and the page and title of the photo.  I’ll post the pictures and links to vote for each of them.  Even if you don’t submit a photo, I’d love if you stopped by and voted for one or more of our photos.  At the moment, it looks like you can only vote for one photo a day.  I’ll keep this page updated and link to it from the sidebar of the blog so you can easily get to it and see new entries and vote.

This year they’ve changed some of the rules, probably for the better:

• Entries can only receive one vote from the same person in a 24-hour period of time. If it is determined that an entry is receiving multiple votes from the same IP address within a 24-hour period of time, the entry will be subject to removal without notice.
• People who won cameras in last year’s contest can still enter to have their photo included in the calendar, but they will not be eligible to win a camera.  People who submitted photos that were included in the calendar can still enter, and can still win.
• Entries are subject to removal at any time without notice.
• Each family is allowed one submission.
• You can see the full list of rules here.
• Voting runs until Oct. 1.

Photos submitted by Little Four Eyes readers (click on the picture to get to the voting page):

I love cupcakes!

Love my little world

Love from first sight

Mother's day kisses

Big sister love

Like dad, like daughter

Brotherly love - Sofie and her brother Aiden

Learning about my world and loving it

Aubrie - The love of dance

Update - the contest is now closed.  According to the website, results will be posted by July 10.  I wish I’d grabbed final numbers, but that doesn’t seem to be an option.

It seemed like the photo contest would never end.  For months, people would ask me if the voting was over, and how Zoe and other Little Four Eyes kids were doing.  Well, voting is over at the end of the day today.  Currently, I can’t even get to the CEF website because the server is too busy.  Some of our photos are doing quite well in the contest, I’m hoping at least a couple will be in the top 12 – winning the submitter a digital camera.  As for the photos that will be in the calendar… Children’s Eye Foundation says they’ll choose the photos from the top vote getters, though I don’t know what the cut off will be.  If you manage to get in to vote, I hope you can vote for a few of our pictures (or all of them), so we can get as many as possible in the running to be in the calendar.

Click on over to the photo contest post to see all the pictures submitted and links to vote.

• Study on the prevalence of eye problems in young children - A recent study was just published in Ophthalmology this month, which is believed to be the first comprehensive eye disease study among urban pre-schoolers, “Prevalence of Refractive Error among Preschool Children in an Urban Population: The Baltimore Pediatric Eye Disease Study.”  (Abstract – which is pretty dense, Press release from Johns Hopkins where the study was done).  I had been looking for statistics on the number of young kids (under 5) with vision problems, and hadn’t found any definitive studies.  This study is pretty close to exactly what I was looking for.  According to the article on the Johns Hopkins site, 5% of the over 2000 children examined have significant refractive errors that require glasses, but only 1% were being treated.  I’ve ordered the full article to see if there’s more detail – I’d love a further break down by age.
• Printable “Welcome to the eyeglasses club” certificates from the Backyardigans.  I think I may make some similar version of a certificate that Zoe can give to any friends that may someday need glasses.
• Bennett’s got a confession – the title combined with the picture made me laugh.  And not to worry, Heidi said they were able to bend the frames back into shape (memory titanium frames from Zenni).
• Children’s Eye Foundation Calendar Photo Contest – We have 13 photos from this community submitted, so we can definitely fill the calendar with our kids!  Vote early, vote often! Some of the pictures are doing pretty awesome, though there are still 3 pictures in the top 12 that have nothing to do with kids.  New goal: down with the flowers!  There are a few great pictures of kids in glasses that I love (and vote for) that I don’t know if they’re from this group.  If you’ve entered a picture and you’re not listed on my voting page, can you let me know?  I want to keep track and help you get more votes.
• Question – related to the point above…Any interest in creating our own Little Four Eyes calendar?

• Young children’s eye care in Nepal.  A very interesting and eye-opening (pun intended.  sorry) account of traveling to Nepal to provide eye care for children there by the organization Seva Canada.
• Families Connecting with Families International Conference.  National Association for Parents of Children with Visual Impairments (NAPVI), Junior Blind of America, and The Braille Institute are pleased to be co-sponsoring this event.  Some of the sessions sound very interesting for parents of children with visual impairments.
• Have you voted in the Children’s Eye Foundation photo contest yet?  We now have 8 entries (though Ingrid’s wasn’t up for voting last I checked).  We can fill this calendar with beautiful kids who have needed eye care at a young age!

I think I’m going to try to keep the Monday morning round up as a way to share things I’ve come across that I don’t have the time to devote a full post to. If you have any news or find anything you want included, email me (ann @ shinypebble.com)!

• 

  the picture of Zoe that I entered in the Children's Eye Foundation's photo contest

  Children’s Eye Foundation is sponsoring a photo contest for its “I Care for Eyecare” calendar, with the theme “It’s a beautiful thing to see.”  More details are here.  It’s pretty much a perfect contest for all of us.  I’ve entered a picture of Zoe, and I’d love if you vote for her picture (it’s titled “Zoe looks out over Lake Superior”).  Let me know if you enter any of your kids and I’ll post the information so we can vote for each other’s kids.  There are 12 winners – each receiving a digital camera!
  Note: the page is once again up.  Check it out and vote!

• Amblyopia kids blogged about places that sell toy glasses for stuffed bears and dolls.
• I got an email from a PR person at Wal-Mart letting me know about their recent announcement to reduce costs for eyecare, specifically children’s frames and lenses.  We have not used Wal-Mart for Zoe’s glasses, so I cannot speak to their service or selection.  If anyone has experience with them, please weigh in.

Hope everyone has a great start to their week!